Tag: novella

‘The Assassin’s Blade’ is the collection of five prequel novellas to the seven-piece fantasy series ‘Throne of Glass’ by Sarah J Maas. It follows the journey of Celeana before the events of any of the other books unfold and gives insight into some of her personality and reasoning, together with expanding on and introducing some other relevant side characters.

The world of Erilea is well-developed if you look at the
series as a whole but if you read the prequels first, it appears scattered and
disjointed. These are definitely not standalone novellas. A good addition to
the series nonetheless.

The plot and pacing of each novella are well-developed.
Those are some tight stories; and compared to the novels are much better in how
they were built as a piece of writing. Each having a specific purpose to
explain a certain thing, they work really well without wasting too many words
on unnecessary descriptions or world-building.

The characters are well-written and well-placed to provide Celaena with a bouquet of life experiences that made her the fearless warrior queen that she is. When reading the series, I did think there were times Calaena behaved oddly, without any good reason backing her actions. This book provides that additional insight into who this character really is.

The side characters are really strong. My favourites were Yrene and Sam – well done, Ms Maas. In contrast to the more explicit love scenes in the other books, the innocent love between Sam and Caleana was refreshing – both beautiful and sad, as the readers know the outcome. I felt genuinely heartbroken every time they would talk about the future.

The writing is good. It made me turn the pages without
thinking too much about sentences and word choice despite some repetitions. The
language is conversational and easy to read. YA readers would have no problem
with this book.